T61 reviews

So except for the pcmag review, have you read anything else (T61, 14.1")? How's the battery life? What about the screen and keyboard? Does VISTA run smoothly? etc.

 

Unfortunately, it appears that battery life on the T61 is sharply down.

About 90 minutes with the default battery in real use, ouch!

It seems that the combination of Santa Rosa and Vista is really sapping the battery.

Early indications are that the T61 is a stinker, notwithstanding PC mag.

Appears T61 is a step backward from T60, just like T43 was a step backward from T42. Santa Rosa looks to be as plagued as Sonoma was.

At this point I'd definitely avoid the T61 because of Santa Rosa and Vista. Hurry and get a better T60 while you still can!

 

How about the review from NotebookReview front page in here: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3685&article=T61andR61 I found it to be great! But, it still doesn't answer a question about screen and keyboard. When I was getting my T60, I config it with 15" just to get FlexView, which I don't believe going to be an option anymore. With keyboard, that was randomly thrown in during the assembly. Don't know if its going to be different now. It makes no sense to have an inventory of 3 different keyboards, so they might switch to one.

 

twister, you have a pair of nice laptops in your sig.

 

I wouldn't mind writing a review on the T61, I would do it for free too. As long as I get it as a freebie

 

I suspected that all along and that's the reason why I scooped up a T60 before it was too late. Vista is probably to blame here's an article I found regarding Vista and battery life and it ain't good.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-6181366.html

 

Yeah, well i'm sure the issue will be addressed if it's for real - but in about a year's time tho.

 

I think part of the reason for the T61's battery life concerns may have to do with the immature state of video drivers for Vista and the X3100/NVS140. For all we know, Intel/nVidia may not have enabled powersaving techniques in their drivers as of yet, and that coupled with Vista's current power usage might have been what killed the battery life that we're seeing in initial reviews.

Can't wait to see a *real* review for the T61 though (NBR ), as the reviews that are out now are far less than thorough and really don't cover the important details.

 

I want a WS around 13-14", so no T60 for me
Although if I see a t60 14", i'll try it. Maybe the SC is not that bad.
I saw someone in an airport with a 14" T60. Damn, should've asked him if I could look at the screen with some applications open.

 

You could be right as the article in ZDnet blames Aero. With it turned off battery life they say is as good or better than XP. Aero needs a good video card to run which draws power so it could be a catch 22.

That's why I think Apple's Quartz is the way to go and there was another article that compared how Microsoft decided to enable 3D and how Apple does it since OSX. The article gave kudos to Apple for it's approach to the 3D interface.

I'll see if I can find the article.

p.s. here's another article that predicted battery problems with Vista and it was written back in Oct. 18 2006.

http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35176

 

What is your source on this? PCMag stated nearly 2 hours while watching a DVD movie, and they did not mention which battery they were using. I'd imagine normal use with the same battery would be close to 3 hours.

Also a reviewer from XYZ Computing posted the following for what I imagine are idle times:

http://www.xyzcomputing.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1047&Itemid=0&limit=1&limitstart=2

 

Question: in the thinkpad t line, which size batteries fit seamlessly in the chassis? 4-cell, 6-cell, 7-cell?

Likewise, which size batteries fit seamlessly in the Ultrabay; 4-cell, 6-cell, 7-cell?

 

I believe in the 14" lineup, the 4 cell fits without protrusions while the Ultrabay holds a 6 cell. The 15.4" laptops are 6 cell I think with a 9 cell option.

 

Nice, completely misinformed info. If XYZ is anywhere near correct, it's not really Vista's fault and not Santa Rosa's either. It mostly has to do with the nVidia card they chose to put in there. It seems like it's absolutely killer on battery life, which is sort of a bummer.

Please explain how the T61 is a step backwards?

 

Now I have to ask this is Vista that bad on battery life? I was thinking of getting a T60 and throwing Vista in for down the road... but if it is really that bad I might have to pass.

 

Its probably just the video card thats eatting up the power, the quadro they used is a mid range card.

Its Vista's Aero thats taking up the power, turning it off should give you the same amount as xp. Its pretty logical too, anyone in their right mind would turn off anything 3d or graphic intensive if they are running on battery life.

I think its really stupid when people complain about not being able to use Aero with the same battery life as non Aero. It's like complaining about not having the same battery life playing a dvd or a game as surfing the internet.

 

Alright sweet, i am still on OSX so I have not really paid attention to windows I assume this Aero is rather easy to turn on and off then? Hopefully something so simple that it automaticly turns on when the laptop is plugged in

 

@ shocker3000

I will give you as honest an answer as I can. I run Linux (dual booted w/ Vista business) on my current laptop (awaiting T61 arrival). In Linux I get about 6 hrs of battery life w/ cpu not under load (12 Cell in HP computer). In XP I always got around 5 to 5.5. In Vista with Aero enabled I get about 4-4.5 hours. With Aero disabled I get about 5. Aero draws a lot from your video card, but Vista also has an equivalent mode that will use the same amount (some claim better) of battery as XP.

??Question??
When we talk about the Ultrabay battery, does having one require you to remove your Optical drive? I was thinking about buying one, but on Lenovo's website it says you have to remove your optical drive in order for it to fit. Sorry, I've never owned a thinkpad before so I don't know how all this stuff works. I just need to know if you can use the ultrabay battery on a T61 without removing any other components. Thanks!

 

Just like T43/sonoma was.
Yes tho nVidia card draws, but we haven't quantified whether it's worse of a culprit than vista and/or santa rosa. Whatever, indications are battery life has suffered substantially. To make matters worse, where is the 9-cell like I got for my T60?

To answer stgben, i am ibm internal.

To respond to tailic, we know santa rosa is taking power too.

And to answer pgatz11, the 6-cell didn't protude in the T60, but could be different in the T61 because they're definitely different batteries as IBM support states that the T61 battery is incompatible with the other T-series batteries (yet one more knock against T61

 

Yes, the ultrabay can hold one or other at a time but not both.
of course you could have a usb-optical simultaneiouisly with an ultrabay battery.

 

Everyone knows that early reports/reviews should be taken with a grain of salt. Remember, historically, every release of a Centrino platform was a "disappointment." (ex. Yonah was "hotter" and "used more battery," Merom "wasn't that much faster," so on and so forth)

SkiBunny, it sounds like you're just trying to make yourself feel better by denying that your T60 has become obsolete. Instead of bashing on the T61's shortcomings, let's capitalize on their benefits to make your T60 seem more obsolete. The T61 has a better rollcage design for the LCD, providing better protection and no interference with WWAN signals. The T61 has a better cooling apparatus which was redesigned with more vents. The new CPU's running on the Santa Rosa platform are shown by Anandtech to have much improved battery life at idle state, which means that for most tasks (word processing, internet surfing, etc.) the battery life will last longer. Who's going to use the CPU at full load on battery life anyway? The T series now has media card readers and the webcam is super, duper awesome, and new firewire capabilities makes me want to grab the closest T60 and pee on it due to its newfound obsolescence.

Let's not forget that you can still order Windows XP with a T61 so your dig on the T61 due to the inclusion of Vista is a non-factor.

Ah T60, how your time has passed. Better save up SkiBunny!!

 

There are several reasons for the poor battery life exhibited in the t61 reviews thus far, but chief among them seems to be the Quadro 140 graphics card. The battery life numbers copied from an xyzcomputing post are displayed in a Lenovo spec sheet ( ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pcinstitute/psref/tabook.pdf) that shows expected battery life (up to) for various configurations. While these are probably "optimum" numbers they illustrate one important point: Lenovo shows the Quadro knocking 1/3 off the expected battery life compared to the integrated graphics!

Said another way... move to the integrated graphics and gain (approx) 50% more battery life!

Every early review for the T61 (and similar R61) has the Quadro graphics card and demonstrates poor battery life. Assuming the Lenovo numbers are anywhere near accurate you have your culprit.

 

Well the good thing is that I won't be doing any heavy gaming (except for 1 or 2 strategic games like Age of Empires or something like counter-strike) so if I do buy a t61, i'll be choosing the x1300.

 

Yes, and having 4 cells doesn't help too ...

 

ATI X1300 is not available in T61, only in T60
Edit: oh! perhaps you was thinking in intel X3100

 

Haha sorry yeah, x3100!!

 

I'll be getting the T61 tomorrow and will have the ability to answer detailed questions.

 

Oh nice. I have to make a decision soon so do you think you can write a review on this forum?
Can you also post your t61#s configuration (including battery size)?

 

The Ultrabay battery is a 3-cell battery (perhaps due to the ultra-slim form factor). Look under T61 accessories in the PDF linked above.

I'm not sure that we should get too hung up on the number of cells in a battery anymore. Among other things the numbers published by Lenovo do not indicate a linear progression. The only true measure of capacity is Watt-hours which I have not seen listed except in one of the reviews... the 6-cell reviewed seems to be 56 Watt hours. Compared to the 6-cell I fully expect the 7-cell to have more than 1/6 additional capacity. Then again I could be dreaming !

 

Here is a really stupid question, can you turn the quadro off when you are on battery power? Since I wouldnt mind doing some gaming (real time strategies mostly, mayble HL2). So I doubt the integrated card would be good enough, but if the quadro is really that bad I might have to reconsider.

 

Nope. The only laptop I'm aware of that allows the discrete graphics to be turned off is the Sony SZ, and it needs to be rebooted for the change to become effective.

[Disclaimer: I'm by no means an expert on laptops but I am a software engineer/programmer and I'm researching for a replacement laptop. When I'm researching I'm *very* thorough .]

 

Can't wait for your review tomorrow, Andrew!

 

Me either Andrew. I am really looking for the T61 review especially about screen quality and new vent system since I had problems with T60p vent noise(squaling sound).

 

I can't wait either. Can't wait to find out in detail just how old and crusty the T60 has now become.

 

Hi Andrew, Please! I am dying for your review. Can you please use Everest benchmark too? I think it is a really nice one. Hurry please!

 

All I see for the T61 14" WS on the Lenovo website is "without camera"......

.....so, no integrated webcam for the 14" widescreen monitor or am I missing something?

 

I'll publish some benchmarks and Everest here soon. Also some pics, not the full review though, just basically going to throw a bunch of numbers out.

 

Can you also comment on the screen? If not, when are we seeing the full review, tomorrow?

 

Andrew,

If you can please focus some attention on the screen, along the lines of brightness, sharpness, viewing angles, contrast. I sold my previous T60p because I could not stand the SXGA+ screen it made my eyes hurt because it was so washed out and fuzzy.

Thank you so much.

 

Andrew, can you also comment on how long the battery will last under normal usage?

Also, some observations on heat and noise as compared to the T60 would be nice.

 

Andrew, what about the weight, compared to T60
And about the widescreen versus 4:3 screen

 

Andrew, we're dying here!
Yes, focus on screen (+ please say if you're comfortable reading two documents opened up sitting side by side (vertically)), battery, heat and noise. Benchmarks woiuld be nice but those I think are secondary right now (or well, at least for me)

 

Sorry guys, but I don't see a relation between sending tons of requests and questions to Andrew and letting him to concentrate on the review. Just wait, the review will come soon.

Besides, Andrew is already answering questions in this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=123126&page=1